GUARDS FOR A PRISON CAMP

The Army's move into the "relocation center" at Tule Lake has The Review's heartiest endorsement. We only hope that the Army means to take over permanent control and oust the War Relocation Authority from the manager's office.

This is not all out of line with our policy of bespeaking a word now and then in behalf of the loyal American citizens of Japanese blood. We place quotation marks deliberately around "relocation center" when referring to Tule Lake, for that assembly of Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens is the result of a smart move by the WRA to segregate the disloyal inmates from its other relocation centers. That the WRA has succeeded in ferreting out the trouble-makers is seen clearly in Tule Lake's record of violence and insolence since the bad ones were brought there.

Tule Lake is no more a "relocation center" than is the penitentiary at Walla Walla. It is a war prison camp and nothing else. While we can appreciate the WRA thought that we should handle Tule Lake with kid gloves so as not to bring reprisals against American prisoners held in Japan, we feel that it is not at all incorrect that the WRA should step aside to permit the Army to exercise its proper authority over a prison camp. Running a prison camp is not the WRA's business. It is the business of the Army and there is no reason why the Army, although being firm, still cannot operate the camp in a humane manner not at all injurious to our fellow Americans in Japan.

For the WRA to insist on continuing control at Tule Lake will be only to invite future riots and thus give another undeserved black eye to the WRA.

And every time the WRA catches a black eye, loyal Japanese-Americans are also subject to criticism, for the American public has not yet learned to differentiate between loyal and disloyal "nisei."